To Label or Not Label...That is The Question...

I've always done everything at my disposal to avoid labeling what I do, or to avoid being labeled myself. ~ Boyd Rice

I grew up in a house in which everything was labeled. My father was a labeling nut, and we used to joke that, if the dogs didn't move, he'd label them. Our light switches were labeled, as to which lamps they turned on. Our garage was filled with perfectly matched bins, that each had a precise label on the outside. Our boat had each hatch, each storage spot and each tool precisely labeled. There was never any question of which fuse, in the circuit breaker, went to which zone of the house. Even our key racks were labeled for each family members' set. Dad was organized like no one I had ever met before, or since. Decades before "organizational systems" and "organizational consultants" were in vogue, our lives fit exceptionally neatly into each of their labeled compartments. The style of label maker would change over the years...from the old tick-type to print out to digital. But, in the end, all of our possessions were labeled.

Perhaps it was my own ridiculous form of rebellion but I lost the labeling habit when I went away to school. My dorm rooms would be a cluttered nightmare, and I'd be forever searching for my soccer shorts, already late for practice. Had I created delineated spaces for each item, I am sure that life away from home would have been far less stressful. Even in my young adulthood, marriage and parenthood, I resisted the labeling technique, convinced that it would stifle my creative spirit and desensitize me to the spontaneous way I wanted to live my life. I felt that putting labels on everything I owned would somehow turn into robot, lacking in inventiveness and imagination.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Where I had daydreamed about resourcefulness and vision, I ended up with a big mess, an ability to find anything I needed, and a way of losing just about everything important. My friend, Deb, came over one day and was horrified to watch me getting ready for tax time. I pulled out one document from under my son's history book, another two that had been left in my car and three more than simply had landed in random spots around the house. Deb reminded me that gathering these vital documents should not resemble an Easter Egg hunt. Her gift to me was a file folder system. She even prelabeled each one for me. For tax time this year, I had everything under control. I was able to hand my husband the papers he needed, in a moment's notice, simply because I'd had them in a labeled folder in a specific spot at the desk. Labeling is one of these areas of organization that I did resist. Some small remaining rebellious residual teenager lurked inside me, until I turned 40. By then, the stress of chaos was taking its toll on me. Living without knowing exactly where everything was became too exhausting. Whereas labeling had seemed tedious and compulsive in my youth, it became a necessity for a comfortable mind...and a more organized home.

Of course, creating the labels themselves is only half the job; the "de-clutterer" needs to clear out the true rubbish, and then create spaces before labeling them. It's much easier, and much less stressful, if you're not trying to organize around the chaos. Once unneeded items are taken to the dump, Goodwill or sold at a yard sale, remove everything from a room. Then, choose your organizational method; Rubbermaid bins, wicker baskets, hat boxes, or any combination that fits your needs and area of the home. Labeling can be done discreetly or more openly...with photos of the contents rather than words. What used to take half an hour to hunt for, can now be grabbed in a matter of minutes. You can label your bookshelves for children's books, adult fiction and cookbooks. This way, it's just as easy to replace items as you need to. Finally, labeling can help you keep from running out of necessary items. On one labeled shelf in our house, we have batteries and light bulbs. In the past, we just had individual packages in various rooms. I'd end up walking from room to room, searching for AA's, when the remote control went out, only to find AAA's and C-cells. By centralizing where you keep these items, and by knowing just where they're supposed to be, you will be able to replenish when you run out.

Labeling is still not my favorite chore. At times it does seem prosaic and laborious. But, the end result is the same: the peace of mind in knowing exactly where everything's supposed to be.

And, you can even label the dog while he's sleeping...just for fun.